Horror/Fantasy
Calvary: Hell's Seed
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Written by: Theodis Moore Jr.
Published by: Publish America
Reviewed by Ismael Manzano
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing a handful of books
from the print on demand company, Publish America. And while some books were not
to my liking—to say the least—others were truly enjoyable. Calvary “Hell’s
Seed,” by Theodis Moore Jr. marks the last of my current crop of material from
Publish America, and I must say that I am glad that my final read from them was
an enjoyable one.
Calvary has an ensemble cast, with many different players, whose lives entwine at various points in the story, but the core of the story revolves around the Miller family, a trio of detectives, a priest named Thomas and the Devil.
Thirteen year old Connie Miller had no idea that her parents, Sarah and Gilbert, were Satanists, or that they’d made a deal with Lucifer to use her as a vessel for his unholy birth. Even as Satan ripped itself out of her body, killing her in a horribly painful way, she still had no idea what was happening to her or why her parents would not help her or the role she’d just played in the destruction of the world. But when she finds herself in Hell, being tortured and tormented on a constant bases, Abbaddon—a angel who’d been captured by Lucifer’s minions—comes to her rescue and fills her in on what her parents had done and what she must do in order to save both Heaven and Earth.
Captain Danielle O’Hara is a hard working officer in Portland, Oregon, who has seen almost everything in her years of service. But when two of her detectives, Walker and Luther, find a string of mutilated bodies with their blood completely drained, O’Hara suspects that the worst is yet to come. It isn’t long before the bodies pile up high and the reports of monsters become too frequent to ignore, and suddenly O’Hara, Walker and Luther, are fighting a supernatural force straight out of Hell.
Father Thomas is an average priest of lackluster faith. That is, until the angel Michael comes to him and tells him that Satan has become flesh and is getting ready to unlock the gates of Hell and release all of his minions onto the world. Father Thomas slowly accepts the mission Michael has laid upon him, and soon learns that there is more to him than even he can remember. Demons shriek at his sight and explode when he lays his hands upon them, and hidden deep inside, is the mystery of the lives Father Thomas has lived and the truth depths of his strength.
Together, Father Thomas, O’Hara, Walker and Luther must pick up the pieces of the city that has been overrun with vampires and demons, save as many lives as possible and forge an army out of a frightened civilization to take on the horde of evil that threatens to spread out to the entire world. God indeed has a plan, but can they hold out long enough for that plan to take hold?
Overall, Calvary is a good solid read with interesting characters and—most importantly—a bold concept. Moore’s depiction of hell was vivid and frightening in a way that had me reconsidering my absence from the Church. And while toward the end, the prose was weighed down a bit with religious mantra and some of Satan’s dialogue sounded absurd, it did not take away from the greatness of the rest of the work. I do think the book would have been stronger if Moore had not spent so much time and pages on throwaway characters, but other than that, I was delighted to read Calvary and look forward to reading the upcoming sequel as soon as possible.
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